My Birthday

Normally I'm not one to make a big deal about birthdays (my own mainly). I usually keep it low key, don't let anyone know it's my birthday, and if they say happy birthday, that's great, if they don't, they don't. Alysha was NOT going to let that be the case this year. She wanted to have a party for me, go out and eat with a group of friends and then have dessert back at the apartment, nothing super fancy, but something more than nothing. I told her not to worry about it because I prefer small groups and if we only invited a couple of people and then they couldn't make it, it would end up just being the three of us (Alysha, Jess, and me). Again, she was not okay with that answer, so she moved the dinner to Saturday so that more people would show up. I'll get to Saturday in a moment, but for now I'll talk about my actual birthday.

Wednesday I woke up, opened my door, and realized that Alysha had put cut-outs all over it. That was a happy, and welcome surprise. Then, as is my ritual for the mornings, I immediately went to the bathroom. In the bathroom, there was a vase of pink roses from Jess. Awwww, precious. Another very welcome surprise. I set up my flowers in the kitchen so that they could be enjoyed by all, then I got ready in a cute new outfit, did my hair, and went off in a great mood to school. At calendar time we looked up at the 26th and saw that there was a "birthday" card under it. I asked whose birthday it was, and no one answered. I asked the class if they were ready to find out whose birthday it was. They were so excited, but when I raised my hand, they were so confused. I told them it was my birthday and they sang to me, and it was great. Simple, sweet, and over, just how I like it :o)

At lunch, Jamie (another 2nd grade teacher) asked if it was my birthday. I told her yes, and she told me happy birthday while Stacey said, "oh, that's why you look so cute today." My team (the 2nd grade teachers) was a little upset (play upset) that I hadn't told them it was my birthday. Jamie asked if we could get lunch tomorrow since they didn't have advanced notice today. I said that sounded fine to me. Other people in the lunchroom overheard our conversation and told me happy birthday. I'm not going to lie, I did like that people noticed. I had to run to the office during prep time to ask the Secretaries a couple of things and one of the Secretaries asked if it was my birthday and wished me a happy one. Then I checked my box and there was a juice and package of trailmix from the PTA.

After school, I decided that since I had everything planned and prepped for the next day, I was going to go home at the contracted time (not two hours later) even though there is always stuff to be doing in my classroom. So at 4:15, I walked out the door. It felt so great to be leaving when the parking lot was still full. I walked in the front door of my apartment to find Alysha blowing up balloons and writing me a card. She got mad at me for coming home early, and I told her I came home when I'm supposed to, it just isn't what she's used to. It felt so good to just relax when I got home. I read some of my book, watched some Arrested Development, and talked to Alysha. When Jess came home they gave me my present. A massage!!! Yes. They know me all too well :o)

After dinner, I didn't know what else to do with myself so I started to do some lesson planning, but Alysha came in and told me to stop. She said we had to do something fun for my birthday. I said, that sounds great, but I don't know what to do. We looked up what movies were playing, but unfortunately all the movie started at 7:30, and then not again until 9:30. And seeing as it was 7:45 when we were looking the movies up, it wasn't going to happen. But as luck would have it, one of the movies was playing at 8:00 at one theater. I grabbed my shoes and my bag and we were out the door. We made it right before 8:00, but the previews went so long that the actual movie didn't start until 8:20. So even if we hadn't have made it on time, we still would have made the movie, but it was quite the adventure getting there on time :o) The movie was cute, we saw "Post Grad" and by time the movie was over, it was time for bed, and I hadn't done a single schoolish thing since coming home. It was great!!! A very pleasant day of turning 22.

I had it all planned that Thursday and Friday I would get lots of work done so that I could really enjoy my Saturday. I would wake up, go for a run, take a nice long shower, get a massage, and then go to dinner with friends. Almost none of that worked out. First of all, Friday was a super stressful day at school, so I came home and refused to do school stuff. I spent that night in Salt Lake with a friend, and so didn't get my early morning run in. It was still an option to go running when I got home, but then I realized all the things I had to get done, after checking the mailbox and seeing that I had to set up online bill pay and go green with my bank, plus go grocery shopping, etc. So after my shower, I went down to get my massage, but the wait was a three hour wait, which means I wouldn't get my massage until 5pm, but dinner was at 6pm, so if they were at all late, I would be late too. So I have to choose another day to get my rub down :o( I did go grocery shopping and some errands before it was time for dinner.

Dinner was fun. It was just a small group of us, but that's definitely how I preferred it. Amanda came down from Sandy and her present made me squeal in the restaurant. She bought me the movie Oklahoma staring Hugh Jackman. Oh, she truly knows me. Her card said, "You still have to come visit me, okay?" And she thought that I would get it right away, but I didn't. I looked at the bag and thought about what could be in it, and it wasn't clicking, wasn't clicking, and then all of a sudden I said, "No, it's not..." And I ripped into it, saw the dvd and squealed. I got some definate funny looks from the other table, but whatev. The dinner conversation was good, lots of sharing, catching up, story telling, and tons of laughter. Ooh, and one of the guy waiters was super attractive. He was a very nice dresser, which is an immediate attention getter, and he had some gorgeous blue eyes. Mmmmm. I had to double check with Amanda that he wasn't a teenager and it was appropriate for me to be appreciating how nice he looked. She guessed he was 23, so it was totally okay that I approved every time he walked by. The only bad thing about dinner was Nick and my dinner. We both got the "maui wawee wrap" and it was not tasty. We both made it through half our wrap before we couldn't eat it any more. So we put the halfs together on one plate and Jess walked up to the front to see if they would give us a different one because it was nasty. Jess said that the boy was about to do it, but a girl walked up and told her that it wasn't allowed. So, the guy (yeah, the hot one) came up at the end of the meal and gave us some $2 off coupons to use the next time we come in. Alright, that works. I checked with everyone else, and they all liked their food. Plus, I've been there before and liked what I had, so I'm not worried about that one bad order ruining Guru's for me, but I'm worried Nick won't ever give it a chance again. After dinner we came back to the new apartment to talk and play games or whatever we wanted to. Oh, Jessica and Alysha made a stop after dinner to pick up a cake. We ate cake and then just ended up talking for a couple hours. Again, it was so great. Because it was such a small group, everyone talked and no one felt left out. That's what I love. It's so hard for everyone to participate in a huge group, and usually I'm the one getting left out, and that's why I'm such a huge fan of having just a few close friends, none of this mob mentality when it comes to friends. What does it help if you have tons of acquaintances but no real friends? Eventually Jess and Nick had to head off to a bon fire, Janeen had another birthday shin-dig she had to make an appearance at, and so Amanda and I got to talk for a while until I started yawning like crazy and had to kick her out. It was such a great party. I was pleased with how it went, appreciated the hugs, the birthday wishes, and the presents weren't half bad either. Oh, I forgot to mention. Nick bought my dinner as his gift, and Janeen picked out an adorable shirt. It was hilarious because when I opened it she said, you need to try it on, because I wasn't sure what size to get you. I mean, you're pretty small, but your boobs are big. She said it as she was walking down the hall, and was surprised when everyone in the living room started laughing because she didn't realize she had said it that loud. Amanda reassured her that Nick hadn't heard, so it was okay, but Alysha comes sprinting down the hall to tell me, "It's just like Hawaii." Yeah, so apparently it's not just Asians that are okay talking about my body. Goodness!!!

Yeah, good times, good times. Wednesday was low key kind of fun, and Saturday was quality time with quality friends good. Good good.